Experimental and numerical investigations on the flow field inside pre-and post-surgery models of posterosuperior septectomy

Three physiological functions of nasal breathing (air-conditioning, filtering and smelling) are closely related with airflow characteristics in the human nasal airway. Since fluid mechanical properties are heavily affected by the geometry of flow passage, the changes in anatomical shape of nasal cavity by disorders or surgical treatments alter the nasal resistance and functions of nose. In this article, the PIV measurement and numerical simulation has been conducted on the airflow in the pre- and post-surgery (posterosuperior septectomy by transnasal endoscopic surgery of anterocentral skull base) nasal cavity models. Two patients\u92 cases were investigated: one with reduction of Creation of an accurate numerical cavity model from CT data is the key to analyze the flow inside of a complex passage by PIV and CFD. Dense CT (Computed Tomogram) data and careful treatment of model surface under the ENT doctor\u92s advice provide more sophisticated cavity models for both PIV experiment and numerical simulation. The velocity fields in nasal cavity measured by PIV were compared with CFD results. We tried to find fluid mechanical properties that were correlated with functions of nose